Many on the Autism Spectrum have issues with the senses related to their ears. I don’t think this is exclusive to those on the Autism Spectrum, but I do know that because of the intensity in which those on the Autism Spectrum perceive and feel energies and vibrations, that it appears within their domain of living.

In my life, I have multiple systems going on with my ears. I am writing about them in the hope that others – even children can say – “that is what is happening for me!” And in doing so, parents and caregivers can have some degree of understanding and then deal with it in different ways.

The premise here is that while we consider the wide open spaces to be wide open spaces, in fact, they are not.

Where do you think the sound waves from each radio and TV station are? Each has their own “bandwidth” that they can be found on and we tune our radios and TV’s into that bandwidth to receive them.

And now with WiFi there are signals and transmission bouncing around our atmosphere with great abandon. Device to device, device to satellite, satellite to device and on it goes.

Have you ever considered that those sound vibrations could be picked up by those more sensitive? Are they like the satellite dishes, receiving sound waves, bleeps and so forth? It is these signals that I think are what I describe in System 2.

Update to this article 2024: another impacting factor which is used by the Tomatis tools is that the sound vibrations are picked up by bone density, rather than the ear canal.  The bone density means that the sound vibrations are felt and then picked up with the Tomatis tools to enable the wearer to hear more clearly.

Please read the following with consideration for new learning since the time of writing (2014).

To explain:

System 1 – Hearing

This is what is considered the main function of the ears – to hear. Whether that is the spoken word or music or a movie, not matter what you are listening to, it is what is considered the normal hearing. The range of hearing ability is from the acute to the profoundly deaf.

There are those who have acute hearing, so that every sound seems amplified. Those with acute hearing can hear whispers, voices over the office partitioning, or in my case many years ago, from within the office space which I shared with 4 others, I could hear conversations occurring over the entire half of the office floor which I was closest to. I sat closest to the door and those immediately outside the office sitting in an open plan area would often test my hearing. There were 5 people in a row and another 5 over the partition. Sometimes conversations would arise between people on either side of the partition and furthest away from me. At times they would joke amongst themselves and see when I started to engage in the conversation they were having. It never took very long and eventually through that I realized how acute my hearing was and that what I was experiencing may not be normal.

I also found that sometimes there were those in the office who liked to be heard by everyone it seemed. Their voices were booming, always loud and they seemed to have no volume control. So when they engaged in a conversation, the volume would increase by the number of participants and who wanted or needed to be heard. It didn’t matter whether the conversation was telling a story, or a joke, or imparting knowledge or debating an issue, those who are loud become louder and at those times, I just wanted to say “shhhh – can you keep you voice down a bit”. Sometimes in some circumstances I did. But mostly, I took the hit of the auditory assault, or carried on with what I was doing attempting to shut it out or withdrew to somewhere else.

I value my ears well enough to not put myself into situation of loud music – be it a concert (position is everything), or wearing headphones or earplugs as many do. The benefit of “shutting everything else out” and being internally focused, I achieve in other ways.

New consideration 2024: Is the sensitivity because of what the bones are picking up, as well as the ear canal?

System 2 – Ringing in the ears

I am going to call this a system, although many would call this a medical problem I should get fixed. The closest name you would refer to it as is tinnea or a ringing in the ears. Others refer to it as “I can hear cockroaches in my ears (or crickets as I know them)”.

The closest sound I know to compare this with is either the buzzing of high density power lines, like you would experience standing near a pylon. Or the sounds of data transferring via an incredibly fast modem, or data transfer device. It is a vibration which translates into the ringing.

One day I would like to do a sound bite to match the sound between my ears – the speed, the volume and the pitch of the vibration. It is high and fast and varies in volume and intensity mostly by what other noises are going on around me. In other words, I notice other noises rather than the data vibration. And it never stops. It only varies in volume. And it goes on in both ears. And it has been going on for years and years – at least 6 or 7. Over time it has just increased in volume and is now – all the time, rather than sporadic. And it doesn’t matter where I am, it is always there – city or rural, which country, on land, sea or air. One of the reasons I have not pursued this medically, is because I am not sure that it can be fixed.

That may sound odd, but I consider that this is a perception or awareness of different vibrations. I think it has increased over time, not because of something physical or medical within me, but because the volume of data being transmitted via mobiles, television and wi-fi devices has increased over the years. Whether one creates the other, I don’t know.

I am not sure I wish to pursue a medical solution when I am not sure that it will ultimately fix it and may have ongoing other issues. What’s not broken, don’t mess with, so to speak. And that is a conscious choice, for now. It may change. The only reason I mention this system is because I think that there is an increasing number of people affected by the same thing. I focus on other sounds, rather than the sound within my ears. If you focused on the sound within your ears, it could drive you crazy and may be the cause of symptoms such as behaviour problems, states of agitation, nervousness and erratic behaviour or moods.

Small children may be seen cupping their ears which sometimes can be an earache and sometimes it might be the buzz they can’t seem to get away from. This is a vibration – not voices.

I talk about this more in the my talks about Vibration.